Putting The Screws To Google

What if 2006 is the year major media players take aim at Google's (GOOG) kneecaps? No, not with more lawsuits; the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers — on behalf, in part, of BusinessWeek's parent company, The McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP) — and Agence France-Presse have already sued the search giant. Instead, picture this: Walt Disney (DIS), News Corp. (NWS), NBC Universal, and The New York Times (NYT), in an unusual display of unity, come together and announce: "We are the founding members of the Content Consortium. Next month we launch our free, searchable Web site, which no outside search engines can access." (A simple piece of code is all it takes to block all or some major search engines from accessing a site.) "From now on, we'll make our content available and sell ads around it and the searches for it, but only on our terms. Who else wants to join us? Membership is free."